Crawley Green finally lift Beds Senior Trophy

At the third time of asking in the last four seasons, Mark Smith’s Crawley Green finally won the Beds Senior Trophy with a thumping 4-0 win against AFC Oakley M&DH on Wednesday night.

Crawley started the better of the two teams in a nervy start as Sam Peverall had a corner cleared in the second minute.

Sean Bishop then headed over from Craig Savage’s long throw before Peverall saw his free kick cleared by keeper Robert Nash.

After 12 minutes the referee had to leave the field of play after pulling a calf muscle and following the change of officials, Crawley continued to press with another Peverall corner which was cleared before Liam Toomey had a shot fly wide.

Oakley replied after 35 minutes when Robbie Alder fired in a cracking shot from a corner which Dean Bull managed to acrobatically tip over the bar.

However, the deadlock was broken after 40 minutes as Nash misjudged a long range effort from Sean Bishop which ended up in the right hand corner to make it 1-0 at the break.

In the second period, Crawley completely dominated as they took the game to Oakley.

Toomey shot wide and a cross from the in-form Peverall was cleared before Green doubled their lead after 47 minutes.

A corner on the left from Peverall fell to Stuart Strange who fired home to make it 2-0.

Crawley continued to pour forward and Nash made fine save from a Tom Barnett free kick.

Just past the hour Crawley killed the game off when Peverall whipped in a free kick from the left and Tom Barnett rose to head the ball past Nash.

Oakley battled to get back into the game and came close to reducing the arrears after 73 minutes as Oli Plested broke clear but his shot across goal went wide of the right hand post.

Crawley responded with an effort from Peter O’Donnell which was well saved by Nash before a fourth goal followed after 85 minutes as Peverall and O’Donnell combined well to set up Sam Halfpenny to make it 4-0.

Crawley’s previous defeats by Ampthill Town and Bedford were laid to rest as Bishop deservedly lifted the cup to round off a fine performance from the Maroons.

On Tuesday, Crawley’s hunt for silverware continues when they visit Codicote in the semi-final of the Division One Cup.